Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 131789 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131789 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
“Gabe’s about to get a new roommate in whatever hole his dad threw him in,” Silas says with a sigh. For tonight, it seems, he’s given up the leash and is resigned to let Lawson run wild. Sometimes you gotta know when you’re beat.
I chug the rest of my drink, feeling glum again. “Fuck Gabe’s dad. Hell, fuck all dads.”
“Oh, yeah.” A mocking grin spreads across his face. “I totally forgot! How was the wedding? Manage to catch your stepmom’s name before they said their I do’s?”
“Missy? Michelle? Who knows. I was high when I got there and drunk by the time we left. Told my dad’s secretary to put it in a memo.”
The chick seems nice enough, for a flight attendant who popped up out of nowhere. Call me crazy for being a little suspicious at the speed of this marriage. All I can say is, my dad better have secured her signature on a prenup before he married his fucking stewardess.
“What about your new stepbrother?”
“He’s alright, I guess. Chill. Sort of aloof, if anything. Turns out he’s taking Gabe’s spot in the dorm, so we’ll be roommates.”
Silas grins and I don’t think I like him having a laugh at my expense. “Nothing like a little forced bonding to bring a family together. What’d he do to end up on the Island of Misfit Boys?”
“Just your standard grand theft auto,” I say with a wink. “So you two should get along great.”
“Yeah, screw you.”
That smacks the smile off Silas’s face. He tends to get a little touchy about the time he got expelled from Ballard for getting wasted and crashing the principal’s car into the goalpost on the football field. How he managed to aim the car at the smallest target on an empty field, I don’t know. Just lucky, I guess.
My phone goes off in my pocket and I pull it out to see a text that makes my pulse quicken.
CASEY: So when are you getting back to campus? We need to hang out.
“That your new roomie?” Silas taunts.
“Nah. Just Casey.” Once again I speak without thinking, forgetting that my boys don’t actually know about this particular friendship of mine.
“Seriously?” Silas cocks an eyebrow at me. Damn, it really is no fun being on the rotten end of those looks.
“What?”
“Fuck you, ‘what?’ She’s a good girl, Fenn. And a junior.”
“It’s not like that.” I shrug. “We’ve been talking a little over the summer, that’s all. Not a big deal.”
“So you’re friends now?”
“Why’s that weird? We connected after her accident. You were there with me, remember? When we dropped by to see how she was doing?”
He flinches at the memory. Casey’s accident always triggers that response in people. It puts a heaviness in my gut that hasn’t subsided even a little since last semester. If anything, the pit gets deeper.
“Didn’t realize you were getting her fucking number when I turned my back for a second.” He pauses ominously. “Sloane won’t like this.”
“Sloane knows all about our friendship and she’s cool with it.” I’m only half lying. Yes, Casey’s sister knows we’re friends. But she sure isn’t cool with it.
Silas rolls his eyes. “Yeah, no. I wasn’t born yesterday. Sloane is probably throwing a fit.”
“Oh no! And we can’t upset your best friend Sloane,” I say sarcastically. “God forbid.”
He frowns for a beat, before shaking his head in resignation. “Just try not to break that poor girl’s heart, man.”
“It’s nothing, Si. Just chill.”
He watches me warily. “I want to believe you.”
“So do it.”
“Thing is, I’ve known you a minute.”
Awesome. Nice to know even one of my best friends thinks I’m a selfish bastard. “I’m not putting the moves on Casey. She’s the furthest thing from my type.”
In fact, Miss Brunette in the Black Bikini meets my eyes as she grabs two bottles of beer and disappears around the side of the house.
Don’t mind if I do.
“Now if you’ll excuse me,” I tell Silas. “I’m being summoned by someone who is my type.”
He shouts “safety first” after me and I give him the one-finger salute as I walk off.
No one understands better than I do how poisonous someone like me would be for a girl like Casey. I just don’t have the nerve to tell her.
Or maybe I’m just the selfish bastard Silas thinks I am.
Chapter 5
RJ
It’s like something out of a horror movie. The Land Rovers unloading students and cardboard boxes against the backdrop of an orange sky. Pan to the bell tower as night falls and close in on the lonely freshman being stalked through the courtyard by a shadowy figure with a meat hook. Just saying, there’s a reason so many of these movies take place at secluded prep schools in the exclusive New England enclaves.
“Let us know if you forgot something,” Mom says, combing her fingers through my hair like I’m a pet she’s dropping off at the vet. “We’ll have it overnighted.”